A distributed control architecture for a purposive computer vision system

In this paper we present a distributed control architecture engaged in purposive computer vision tasks. In this context, the vision system's purpose is translated into a set of behaviors, which are decomposed in specific tasks. A multi-agent approach is used to model purpose, behaviors, tasks and the relationship among them. Purpose is modeled by a society of autonomous agents, each one responsible for a specific visually guided behavior. Tasks are represented by basic agents, organized in a hierarchical structure with autonomous agents on the top. As a testbed, the architecture of a specific system for visually guided assembly is presented and a distributed implementation is described.